Everyday Holiness: Reflecting God’s Heart in Everyday Life (Exodus 22–23)

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so today's message title is every day holiness, every day holiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we live in a world that kind of separates, and honestly, this happens even in our own life, but separates the spiritual from the practical.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you've seen this happen or played out in your life for the lives of those around you, but we have what you could say, your church life,

[SPEAKER_00]: right everyone here they know you oh God bless you oh bless you too and how are you doing I'm doing great and you know two blessed to be stressed and then you have your real life out in the world right where you're at work right and so here's the thing those God

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you know, and if you don't, I'll tell you today, is God doesn't see it like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, you have your church life where you're good, and you have your real life where you're different.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, you have your life singular.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have one life to live, and who you are on Sunday, should be the same on Monday through Saturday as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in Exodus, chapter 22 and 23, as we continue through the law, we saw some of this last week in chapter 21.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We saw the Ten Commandments in chapter 20, but what we see is God teaching his people about holiness and what it means to be set apart, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He is freed them from Egypt and now he's giving them rules or a set of commands to say, this is how you should live.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he's saying is this is, and what it is, it's polar opposite of what they just came out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they came out of Egypt, a landfill of idle worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: They worship, serve many gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sacrifice babies to these gods for crying out loud, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this, there's adultery, there's murder, there's stealing, there's this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God says, I want you to be set apart, totally, completely different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be different.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he goes through the 10 commandments and he starts to break it down into these practical aspects of what it looks like to fill every part of our life right how we work.

[SPEAKER_00]: How we speak to one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: How we rest even believe it or not, he talks about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: How we treat people and how we trust God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we come to church sometimes, we worship, this is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: We open our Bibles, that's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: We feel close to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: My fear is sometimes if you guys are, or even us, we're addicted to being convicted.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, oh, man, I just want to feel convicted and say, come to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, that was good, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: It got me.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then you leave and you're like, you don't do anything different.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we come.

[SPEAKER_00]: We come feel close to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then Monday comes and emails roll in traffic wherever we may be going.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stress, people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the holiness that we were pursuing, I mean, it starts to fade a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get distracted.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, today's passage, I want us to think about, this is what holiness, which is being set apart, God calls us to be set apart from the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a conform to the ways or the patterns of this world would be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think and consider that this passage is what holiness looks like in everyday life, not just on Sundays, not just when you feel like it, but this is what God wants and expects from his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember where we are in this story, the timeline, God's brought us people out of slavery from Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's brought them to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's given them the ten commandments and what He's done, He's giving them now what people

[SPEAKER_00]: In chapters 21 through 23, again, as we start last week, he starts to tell us what these commandments look like in real life, the 10 commandments.

[SPEAKER_00]: How does that look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that play out?

[SPEAKER_00]: They start to explain how it should affect their work, their relationships, the justice system, even.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're rest in their worship, they're not random laws, even though it does seem that way sometimes, and seems like you're reading a Twitter feed, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And just kind of jumps from one tweet to the next, and then like, how's that fit together?

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's telling us that this is what a redeemed or holy life a life lived in pursuit of me should look.

[SPEAKER_00]: One truth that we shouldn't forget about Israel in the book of Exodus, but even for ourselves is that Israel was saved by grace, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not saved by works, not saved by holding on to the law or doing all these tasks they are saved by grace, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God delivered them out of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: All he asked for them was basically just come and follow me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saved by grace, and the same is true for you and eyes, we're saved by grace, but then understand this is once we're saved by grace, we're saved and called into a life of obedience, all right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't obey to be saved, we obey because we are saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: I know some of you are like, well, the law was fulfilled, we shouldn't have to worry or care about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I understand the argument, I understand that idea, and I would agree, Jesus has fulfilled and I'm not arguing, we should try to uphold the law in some sense that we are wholly and capable of

[SPEAKER_00]: of saving ourselves or any of that, but what I'm saying is God has been so gracious, merciful and good to us, to me, in my life where He saved me from my old self, that man, my response was Paul says, it's my, um,

[SPEAKER_00]: My reasonable, what does he say?

[SPEAKER_00]: My reasonable, active service Romans 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's like, it's his reasonable response.

[SPEAKER_00]: To God's love is great as mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'm offering myself as a living sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm so overwhelmed of his grace as mercy has loved for me that he's forgiven me, that why wouldn't I want to obey and serve the one who's died for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: When who's buried for me, the one who rose again on the third day for me, who's calling me to rise myself and follow after him, why wouldn't I want to obey?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we walk through these chapters, I just, again, want you to think, consider that holiness, the pursuit of holiness, anyways, isn't about trying to earn salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a response to our loving God why would we not want to live after him?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just about one day, you know, Sunday we're holy and then the rest of the week, we do whatever we want.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's holiness is an everyday pursuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: where we should be reflecting God's heart in all that we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so let's read Exodus chapter 22.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna read verse 115.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a rather long chunk, but bear with me and I'll make some highlights through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus chapter 22 verse one, it says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five ox and four and ox and four sheep,

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: for a sheep.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if the sun has risen on him, there shall be blood guilt for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall surely pay.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man causes a field or a vineyard to be grazed over, lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the fire breaks out and catches and thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe and it is stolen from the man's house, then if the thief is found, he shall pay double.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not

[SPEAKER_00]: For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing of which one says, this is it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The case of both parties shall come before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or a beast to keep safe and it dies or it is injured or is driven away without anyone seeing it and oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property.

[SPEAKER_00]: The owner shall accept the oath and he shall not make restitution but if it is stolen from him he shall make restitution to its owner.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it is torn by beast let him bring it.

[SPEAKER_00]: His evidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall not make restitution for what has been torn.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 14, if a man borrows anything of his neighbor and his injured or dies, the owner not being with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall make full restitution.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it was hired, it came for his hiring fee.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot in there, and I'm not going to cover every single little piece in full detail, but trying to give us kind of the overall picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God begins this section and we actually saw it start last week in chapter 21, but He talks about restitution.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 1 He says if a man steals an ox or a sheep, right, and it kills, um,

[SPEAKER_00]: And it kills it or sells it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall repay five oxen for one ox and four sheep for one sheep.

[SPEAKER_00]: And notice this isn't just the punishment, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This restoration, there's restitution in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the point I want you to see or understand if you take notes is if you wrong someone, God says, make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and that just makes sense, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But God writes it in his word, and we might not be, you know, like they're talking about ox and donkey's and all these things, and we're like, well, I don't understand, well, it's like, you know, if your neighbor lends you their lawnmower and you're using it and you broke it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That just makes sense, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you don't just bring it back over and hope they don't notice, say, oh, well, here's your lawnmower back, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, what happened?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why's the wheel off, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't it always like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's the way you gave to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like, God says, make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the basic understanding I want you to take away from this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he also says, like, if you're negligence, like you're, maybe you're like, well, you just try to plead the fifth and you're air, not air against, but ignorance.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're just like, well, ignorance is bliss.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care, I'm not going to talk about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know something weird going on over there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't want to address it, or God says,

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, your negligence if it causes someone else's harm, like he says in verse 5, when a man's field or Vineyard is grazed over by another man's animal right his beasts is let loose there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says he shall make restitution in other words All right, we don't just say my bad You know, he's saying fix it

[SPEAKER_00]: make it right, holiness, every day holiness looks like restoring as much as we can.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's up to us in like the relationships around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that you see we hit this point last week more, but it's like God cares about how we treat one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times we're like, well yeah, I know God and I love Jesus and I believe the Bible and but then we live and act a whole different way which goes against everything that God's called us to do and how He's called us to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to care about God for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart's soul in mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: They says, secondly, love your neighbor as yourself, I still love one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: So living in a holy way, God is calling the Israelites, but even us today, it looks like trying to live in such a way that we take ownership of what we have, things that we have oversight of, and trying to restore as much as it is up to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some things to think about on this note, when we sin against someone, specifically, whether it's through your word, you said something that hurt, words hurt, maybe didn't mean them to hurt.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're just the person, well, I just told them how, you know, the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, one of my kids, uh, my daughter, she's very much the way it just says how it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was supposed to ask what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, your words are hurtful, sweet heart, you know, like, you can't just say it how it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but it's the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't lie.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I understand that, but there's a way to either say the truth and a loving way or a way to just not say it, doesn't need to be said.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just think about it right when we sit against someone, maybe it's through our words, maybe it's through our actions, but as even God's words says it could be through our negligence, our unwillingness to deal with the situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we need to understand when we sit against someone we should make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now what does that look like in our lives?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, well, if you've hurt someone, you don't just, well, I'll pray about it, you know, like, go and try to make things right.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've hurt someone, I think this my belief is like, one of the things that needs to happen, like there needs to be a verbal understanding of like, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've wronged you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you forgive me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's how I believe it.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you can, I understand there's probably times where it's like, well, I don't know who that person was that I got into car accident with and said those terrible things to, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that happened or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, I don't know how to get a hold of them, but like your coworker at work.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you said something, you did something to hurt them, to offend them, to try and tear them down.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've sinned against them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I think we need to do what we can to go and try to restore that relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it's not restore the relationship, but at the very least, it's to make the slate clean where we say, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: I shouldn't have said, done or acted that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: You broke something, well, God's saying, well, go and pay for it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just ignore it and let it go, but pay for it, make things right, and try to reconcile things best we can.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what grace looks like, lived out in our life, having grace for one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an example of man, Zacchaeus, you guys know Zacchaeus?

[SPEAKER_00]: How's the song going to anyone know that one?

[SPEAKER_00]: from like, we little that keyis or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, but anyways, I want to turn to Luke chapter 19, we're going to get introduced to Zach Kias, right?

Luke 19 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus has this interaction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke 19 verse 1,

Luke 19:1

[SPEAKER_00]: says that he entered Jericho, it's a Jesus and he was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a chief tax collector and was rich.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just pictures Zacchaeus, he's tax collector, he's rich.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that he was seeking to see who Jesus was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was a small, he was small in stature.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a short guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sick and more tree to see him.

[SPEAKER_00]: For he was about to pass that way, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today.

[SPEAKER_00]: A picture of the scenes at Kia's Rich Man.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a tax collector.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's probably done some shady business deals to some degree, which we'll see in a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he wants to see Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to see him understand him a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it goes up in this tree.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then what do you know, Jesus himself calls out to him, that Kia's come down.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need to stay at your house today.

[SPEAKER_00]: What a sight, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would that be like a viewer's that Kia's like, what no way are you serious?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he hurried, it says.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he came down and he received him joyfully, and when they saw it, they all grumbled.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the people around.

[SPEAKER_00]: They see that Jesus goes to Zacchaeus's house, the tax collector.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it says that he has gone into be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't know all about Zacchaeus and what he's done and what he's known for, but these people think that Jesus has gone into be with the sinner and says in Zacchaeus stood, said to the Lord, behold, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it for fold.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what Zekia's does, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He meets Jesus and what it is he do, his response in meeting Jesus, seeing Jesus as he wants to show grace and mercy and forgiveness to all those that he has connections with.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I want to repay people for what I've defrauded them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you doesn't just say, I want to make it right if I took 20 bucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give him 20 bucks back.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm going to repay them for fold.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a picture of the Zacchaeus experiencing grace, experiencing mercy, experiencing the forgiveness of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he is so overwhelmed that it starts to flow into the lives around him.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God wants for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we experience God's grace and mercy, it should be something that overwhelms us and overflows into the lives around us where we're like, God has forgiven me of so much more, I want to forgive and I want to make things right with all the people around that I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus forgives and He restores us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we should also reflect that to others.

[SPEAKER_00]: or, yeah, looks, versus 16, actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a man seducer the virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall not permit a sorceress to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord, the word Yahweh, the name Yahweh, alone shall be devoted to destruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should not wrongish sojourner or oppress him for you or sojourners in the land of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I will kill you with the sword and your wife shall become widows in your children, fatherless.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor,

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not be like the money lender to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not exact interest from him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

[SPEAKER_00]: For that is his only covering.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is his cloak for his body and what else shall he sleep?

[SPEAKER_00]: And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so in this section, we see, I mean, God cares for,

[SPEAKER_00]: the vulnerable, cares for people and maybe that's a redundant statement I've been saying over and over again, but I hope that you see and take this in.

[SPEAKER_00]: God cares about people and he cares about how you and I treat one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, one thing I wanna focus in on he says, verse 21, you shall not wrong a soldier, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's someone traveling through the land, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who doesn't belong there, they didn't grow up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not native to the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you shall not wrong them or press them.

[SPEAKER_00]: we're soldiers in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, God reminds them where they came from, which I think is beautiful and it's important because for me it's like, I don't want to forget what God has brought me out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm free to from what God has brought me out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to remember because I think sometimes when we forget what God has done, what He's brought us out of, we have this tendency to think that we're better than everybody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever seen this in your own life, by the way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the things that like make you most upset with other people, if you're honest, are the characteristics that you probably express yourself?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever thought that?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the next time you're getting upset, think about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be humble, honest, look at yourself with God's lens.

[SPEAKER_00]: and ask yourself, do I act this way or think this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: I know what for me, one of the things that coming into Christianity, giving my life fully the God, or at least coming back to God, I came out of drugs in alcohol and one of the things like, for the first three years that made me like so,

[SPEAKER_00]: upset but I thought it was like a righteous way.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was whenever I see one of my friends who was the Christian getting drunk or high and I would start to say things to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it but it's one of the things that I used to be just like them and then I get upset because I see that in them because it reminds me I think of myself but why I say we shouldn't forget is because we got to remember the mercy, the grace, the forgiveness that God has extended to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's telling the Israelites here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget, you are sojourners in Egypt, and so don't mistreat other people, because, I mean, you should treat people the way you want to be treated, essentially.

[SPEAKER_00]: Treat people the way that I've treated you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He continues on and how he treat people says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wrath will burn.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's powerful, that's pretty weighty, it's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's personally invested in protecting the vulnerable.

[SPEAKER_00]: widows the Fatherless, the poor.

[SPEAKER_00]: They matter deeply to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And His expectation for the Israelites and I would even say His expectation for us that somehow we should live.

[SPEAKER_00]: How should we pursue holiness?

[SPEAKER_00]: How should we pursue being set apart or followers of Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: As we should be caring for the people that God cares for.

[SPEAKER_00]: He cares for the widows the Fatherless, the poor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's his heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: but something to think about for ourselves in this, I mean, who are the, number one, who are the sojourners in your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: People eat my judge and act harshly towards, but again, it's like you get upset with them because they remind you of yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're the sojourners in your own life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're the people, maybe even others in your life at work wherever it is that they overlook what God's calling you to see, to wake up, to be aware of, to care for these people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a neighbor, who doesn't know anyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's co-worker going something through, going through something hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a parent, a single parent, a student.

[SPEAKER_00]: an old-lear adult who feels forgotten.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, if we've experienced God's grace, or we could say compassion, we should extend that to others.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we should be the first to extend it to others.

[SPEAKER_00]: James I, 27, James Wright's religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's just an idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, in some people say, well, it's not religion, it's relationship, and I get that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a relationship, but religion is like, I know there's a bad taste to the world of what religion is, but the Bible says religion that is pure, like the right kind of response we could say to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before God, to care for others, he says specifically orphans and widows, to keep oneself unstained from the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's holiness, therefore, our pursuit of holiness should be similar in the sense that we're compashing it towards others.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're pursuit of holiness, I would say, doesn't make you more loving.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not holiness that you're pursuing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like holiness is carrying how God cares.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're not more loving, you become more judgmental, you're more stubborn in your ways, like what you're actually pursuing is pride, or you're feeding your pride, feeding your ego.

[SPEAKER_00]: After laying out God's heart, though he says, for the foreigner, the widow, followers, God ends this chapter by reminding Israel that holiness isn't just about how we treat other people, but he reminds them like it's about how we honor him, verse 28, Exodus 22, says, you shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first born of your sons, you shall give to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep seven days, it shall be with its mother.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the eighth day, you shall give it to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 31, you shall be consecrated to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not, or you shall throw it to the dogs.

[SPEAKER_00]: My says, you shall not revile God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a word we can even say to be like cursing God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Going against guys says, watch your words about God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Watch your words about the leaders that he's put over you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, don't curse the ruler of your people, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God's established a system if you remember, back a few chapters.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before I gave the Ten Commandments, right, Jeff Rowe, Moses's father-in-law comes in, and says, Moses, what you're doing is not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to get other people, faithful, trust worthy men, who fear God and don't take a bribe.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to put them in place to help manage the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God puts them that system in place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now He's given them

[SPEAKER_00]: the rules and laws to go with the system.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's saying, don't revile God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't go against God, don't curse God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's also don't curse the people who are in charge of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The leaders he's placed over you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reverence for God that we should have a respect, if you will, or we fear and tremble before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we're also in faithful obedience to God, but we have this reverence for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says in that party, he says, you still not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest, from the outflow of your presses, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Telling them here, don't delay and giving what belongs to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, this point isn't about,

[SPEAKER_00]: livestock or crops, although it involves those that's about matter of priority, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't want the leftovers he wants, the first fruits, and a point we can make here right, our generosity, our giving shows whether we trust God or honor God or not with our first fruits.

[SPEAKER_00]: The last part he says, he says, you shall be men, people consecrated to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it's set apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or we could say, the word like holy, even means that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're consecrated, set apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's people are to look different, sound different, live different because we are different, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: When Christians try to look more like the world, that's a yellow flag at the,

[SPEAKER_00]: lowest level but a red flag at the highest right when we're trying to blend in with the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's many people who will compromise a lot of the things where God wants us to stand out and be set apart but they'll compromise because I'm just trying to reach the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they'll quote scriptures like Paul, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, we got to be all things to all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean we need to be a drug addict to reach drug addicts?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, absolutely not.

[SPEAKER_00]: We wouldn't want to enslave ourselves to sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can understand the arguments.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, like, be all things all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm going to go out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that might mean that I have to present the gospel in a different way, the gospels the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you look at Paul specifically,

[SPEAKER_00]: throughout all of his letters, he presents the gospel in different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he's talking to the Pharisees religious leaders who have this great understanding of the Old Testament, he basically jumps to like, hey, Jesus has fulfilled everything that you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then when he goes to like the Greek, the people who might not know anything about it, he actually kind of lays it out in Acts 17's a good example.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's like, your own people, philosophers essentially, they've written these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he builds a case argument, building up to the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that 20 means when he says, be all things to all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like we have to understand them to be able to preach and bring the gospel to life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean we compromise.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's called us to be set apart, to be consecrated, to be different.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're going to go on to verse 1 of chapter 23.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to try to make it through the whole chapter of 23, if you could believe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or do I miss one?

[SPEAKER_00]: I missed one?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you shall not spread a false report.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not join hands with the wicked man to be a malicious witness.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not fall in with the many to do evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit siding with the many, so as to pervert justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you meet your enemies, ox or his donkey going to stray, you show bring it back to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you show refrain from leaving him with it, you shall rescue it with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor.

[SPEAKER_00]: in his lawsuit, keep far from a false charge and do not kill the innocent and righteous for I will not acquit the wicked and you shall take no bribe for a bribe blinds the clear sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not oppress a sojourner.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the heart of a sojourner for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: So chapter 23, kind of turns to more integrity, if you will, like how we speak and how we treat others.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, verse one, he says, you shall not spread a false report, which this would go with one of the 10 commandments, right, you shall not bear false witness, but he kind of expounds upon it here, where God's explaining it, you shall not spread a false report.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would say this is more,

[SPEAKER_00]: At the very least it's as relevant as it was then as it is today, but I feel like it's almost more relevant today because we have this thing called the internet and we have social media and we have you know all these ways in which we're connected but I mean a news flash if you didn't know this I'm sure you do but if you didn't not everything you see or read on the internet or in

[SPEAKER_00]: Not everything you see or read is true.

[SPEAKER_00]: The matter of fact, probably most of it is a false report.

[SPEAKER_00]: You understand that?

[SPEAKER_00]: People make businesses off of just getting viral clips.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's their job.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't care who it hurts or misleads or any of that stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if it gets clicks and views and makes money, they're going to say it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then you'll see these crazy headlines that draw us in.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, what?

[SPEAKER_00]: No way.

[SPEAKER_00]: That didn't really happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me click and see it right and then we see or reread something that's not really what it made.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's sound like anybody's seen that falling into that trap.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's clickbait where there's like, you wouldn't believe what Trump did today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I've got to see, then you're like, well, this isn't really new news or anything really.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, they want a false report.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to mislead and honestly, people are misleading today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not.

[SPEAKER_00]: meaning it in an evil malicious way, but they're just in a greedy way for sure whether they're just trying to make money.

[SPEAKER_00]: God says here I don't don't be involved with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was that look like for us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, don't share false

[SPEAKER_00]: Things, right where we're like, oh, dude, you wouldn't believe it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to see this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's real or not, but check this out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ryan, we send it to our friends and whatever, our coworkers, not forwarding, lies, or not repeating gossip.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not a part of the whole slanderist thing that's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, God's saying, just don't spread a false report.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a person of God who follows Jesus, right, we should be ones who, if someone shares something, falls with us, it ends with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: At least we're trying to put it out, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It shouldn't be like we carried it on and spread it to others.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says in verse two, you shall not follow a crowd to do evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: Basic principle, I mean, probably your parents or some parent told figure in your life, told you this, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean you should do it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, everyone, anyone ever told you like, hey, if they all jump off a bridge, would you do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my thought was like, well, I mean, is there water down there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did they make it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did I might?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, because I was crazy like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I might.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, is it a bungee cord involved?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean that it's right, God's people are to be distinct, set apart, holy, consecrated from the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's even when we're standing alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even when, like, if everybody else is gonna hate us and look at us differently, but we're standing for what's right, that's what we gotta do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me and my kids, we started watching family matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many of you guys ever watched a family matters?

[SPEAKER_00]: So Carl Winslow, all right, we watch the episode last night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he, he's a cop and he's faced with this situation where there's this super famous guy,

[SPEAKER_00]: someone good rich, right, I don't know if you've seen this episode, but anyways, like he parks his car in a handicap spot, so he comes and sells them, like, hey, you need to move your car, I'm gonna tell it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the guy basically, like, well, I'm famous, this is a paraphrase, I'm famous, I'm not gonna move it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then ends up swinging at Carl Winslow and then he arrest him, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then the whole thing comes out, it's on the news that you wouldn't believe that America's favorite celebrity got arrested by this terrible cop, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: upholding justice and he was standing for the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know this is a fictional show.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting real detailed in this, but that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he stood for what was right, and even his family, you know, they're all matted him at one point, because they saw the news on TV, where it said Carl Winslow was the police officer who arrested this guy, and they're all matted him until they found out the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's just a silly example, though, but I think true, nonetheless, that we need to stand for the truth, even if everyone hates us, they think we're crazy, we're weird, we're outcast, even from our own family at a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: For Carl Winsos, like once the family realized he was telling the truth, then they all were on his side and they hated the celebrity.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, he's got says don't follow a crowd to do evil, just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you should too.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verses 6, 7 and 8, God says not to pervert justice, don't show favoritism, don't take bribes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, justice and truth are things that should reflect God's character in our lives through our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, um, what was that?

[SPEAKER_00]: That was verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did I read through last guy's verse nine?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're in verse 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: verse 10 of Exodus 23 says for six years you shall sew your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie.

[SPEAKER_00]: Follow that the poor of your people may eat and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Six days, you shall do your work, but on the seventh day, you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest and the sun, of your servant women and the alien may be refreshed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pay attention to all that I have said to you and make no mention of the names of other gods nor let it be heard on your lips.

[SPEAKER_00]: Three times in the year, you shall keep a feast to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread, as I commanded you, you shall not eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of a beave, for in it you came out of Egypt, none shall appear before me empty handed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall keep the feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall keep the feast of in gathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field, the fruit of your labor,

[SPEAKER_00]: shall all your mails appear before the Lord God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything on leavened or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: The beast of the first fruits of the ground, you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk, which is a weird thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it's a little strange sometimes, but he's talking about rest a bit here, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that you need to, at least at first, he says for six years, you shall work the land on the seventh year you let it rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was a principle what God was giving them.

[SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't just to be set apart in different, but actually it's first sustainability.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if anyone who's farmed or any of that stuff like you have to let the land rest because if you just keep growing year after year after year, you're like plants are taking nutrients from the ground, they're eating it essentially, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're draining it up, it's supplying.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's like, hey, even the plants in the field and the dirt, the soil, it needs to rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the reasons God exiles them later on, this is long down the road, but God exiles them from the land because he's like, you haven't given my land its rest and I'm gonna take the rest from you to give to the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's 70 years at their exile, because there's 70 years of rest that's needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: One year for every year they didn't let their land rest because they were greedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't listen to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God's like, hey, you need to work,

[SPEAKER_00]: You also need to let the land rest, but then he also says, personally, six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you need to rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says here a reason why, so that your ox, your donkey may have rest, write your animals.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is also your servants, the aliens, that they may be refreshed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the point of the matter here, I think, is God cares about our rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's instituted it for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's given it to us so that we can rest because we need it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just for

[SPEAKER_00]: for us alone, but everyone under every one and everything under our care.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've said this before, but rest isn't laziness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as someone was like, oh, if I take a day off, and I'm just lazy, and I don't want to be lazy, and we think that, I don't know what we think, but we just think that we got to keep going, keep working, keep doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God gives us the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, God made Sabbath for the man, not man for the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I gave you this because you need rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God being a good father.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I know you need rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so take a day off and the Sabbath are taking a day of rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also a way of saying, God, you're in control, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to honor you, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That the world, it keeps going around me, like I don't have to be working all day and night, but I'm going to honor you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to trust you that even that when I'm not working, you're going to be provider.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he gives in that little chunk there.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's three feasts, if you notice, right, there's the feasts of unleavened bread.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, remembering their deliverance from Egypt is something they were to do generation after generation, year after year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep the feasts of unleavened bread.

[SPEAKER_00]: The feasts of harvest, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It would be a time to celebrate God's provision.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's the feasts of ingathering, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're rejoicing in God's faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: But their calendars, what I want you to see here,

[SPEAKER_00]: not work, I want you to let that sit in because we're in the 21st century and our whole life's built around our schedules, built around work.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mind is conditioned to think about what are we going to do with our life?

[SPEAKER_00]: When we're 10 years old, we're like, well, what do you want to be when you're older?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're already being conditioned to start thinking about where we're going to work, where do we want to work, how much money do we want to make, but just understand when God's saying this, he's like, I want your life, your calendar, to revolve around worship of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: not work, and a question to think about for us, what would change if our schedule reflected God's calendar rather than our own load change, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If rest in worship were priorities in our life, what would our life look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would our schedule look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't just want to be part of your life on Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be involved in an all-time or rhythm of life should be around him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe today, just even something for you is just like you need to take the Sabbath more seriously.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not in a way of trying to earn righteousness or anything, but just realize that I can't do it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just need to have a day of rest where I come before the Lord say, God, you are good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to do any more things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to worship and trust that God, you will provide what I need.

[SPEAKER_00]: The last little bit, it's actually a lot of bit 13 verses, but verse 20.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to bring you to the place that I have prepared, pay careful attention to him and obey his voice, do not rebel against him for he will not pardon your transgression for my name as in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some scholars think that this is, at the very least, it's a representation of God, but it might even be the angel of the Lord to agree, but right, it says that my name is in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says, but if you carefully obey his voice, this angel who's gone there to guard them on their way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you obey his voice, do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: And an adversary to your adversaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a pretty sweet promise, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God told you that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, hey, if you just do what I've told you to do,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you live how I've asked you to live, he's like, I will be an enemy to your enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, I'll be on your side.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna fight for you, and that's what God will do, but he fights for himself, understand this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just like all of the sudden, God's gonna take on our battles for our own personal gain.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's like, God's like, we're joining his fight.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'm gonna fight for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be an enemy to your enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be an adversary to your adversaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a very, it's a repeat what he said to Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to bless those who bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to curse those who curse you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He goes on, he says, when my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Parasites and the Canaanites, the Hittvites and the Jebusites, and I blocked them out, you shall not bow down to their gods and or serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars and pieces.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall serve the Lord your God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will bless your bread and your water and I will take sickness away from among you nun shall miscarry or be barren in your land.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will fulfill the number of your days.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will send my terror before you and we'll throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come.

[SPEAKER_00]: and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you, and I will send Hornets before you which shall drive out the hybites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will not drive them out from before you in one year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's land become desolate in the wildbeast multiply against you, and he says this little by little.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land and I will set your border from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you should drive them out before you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should make no covenant with them and their gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: They should not dwell in your land less.

[SPEAKER_00]: They make you sin against me.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if you serve their gods it will surely be a snare to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he closes this chapter, I mean, this is a lot again, but says the angel, I'm gonna send, he's gonna go before you to guard you, he's gonna bring you to the place I've prepared for you, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to get them to the Promised Land eventually and understand this, it's like God is calling them to this land that he has for him, but there are other people groups, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's all these, the hymnvites, Jebuse sites, Canaanites, people are dwelling in this land and God's saying that they're serving false God,

[SPEAKER_00]: False gods, they have all this idle worship, all this stuff, and he's saying, I want you to go in, and I'm going to give you victory over them.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you obey me, if you stay in this covenant relationship with me, things will go well, I'll be an enemy to your enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take care of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you're going to see some great things happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be with you every step of the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that I note in this is that he says this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is maybe not so encouraging for them, maybe it won't be encouraging for you today, but it's something to take in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says little by little, I'll drive them out.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm not going to drive them all out in a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's, the land be desolate and just understand this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's just a great principle in this, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God's pace.

[SPEAKER_00]: is not our pace.

[SPEAKER_00]: While we hear something, we read something we want it today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's part of being conditioned in the 21st century where we have all these convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: The world revolves around convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you can make something work faster, people get something faster, a service, whatever it may be, you'll probably be a successful business man or woman, because we want convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's pace is not our pace.

[SPEAKER_00]: His timing is not our timing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to bring you, or I'm going to drive them in, little by little, or we want this instant breakthrough, instant victory, instant answers.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's process is often slower, and here's the thing is because He's forming us and teaching us in the midst of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I weren't such a hurry to get to the place we think we need to be or get to whatever on the journey is where God does some of His best work.

[SPEAKER_00]: Teaching us patience, teaching us to care for one another, teaching us about Himself and how He provides for us through this process, but He's forming us.

[SPEAKER_00]: teaching us, discipling us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he gave us everything at once, I mean, for one, we probably wouldn't be able to handle it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't, I think if God would just, like for us, it's like, we asked for so much, and I think God is gracious because he's like, you don't know what you're asking for.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I gave that to you, it would destroy you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember one of my friends, he's a pastor up in Vancouver now, I worked with him in Arizona,

[SPEAKER_00]: But we were talking right this couple of years ago talking about church planning is like how's it going you know all that stuff and you know it's going slowly and he just asked me a question because I don't know one of my heart was like I just want to reach people and I want to you know have people come to church and hear the gospel and at that time we had you know maybe 15 people and it was just

[SPEAKER_00]: It was hard, but he said, Nick, like, if God answered your prayer and sent 200 people to Fervent Church next Sunday, he's like, like, what would happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, could you even serve them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I, well, we could fit them in the cafeteria, sure, but it's like, well, what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: We probably have 300 kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they couldn't serve them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, then they're going to be out here, and then this is going to be chaotic.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just like, he, in his caring way, is like, Nick, you don't know what you're asking for.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just be patient.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be faithful and the little things in God will continue to grow you mold you and he'll bring the next step when it's right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But some of us were frustrated with God because it doesn't move as fast as we want, but just to learn to be still and be patient and trust God's timing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's teaching us to depend on him day after day after day.

[SPEAKER_00]: An encouragement, Philippians 1, 16, Paul writes to the church

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he's gonna finish this work in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: One way or another, however that looks, we want to be like boom done today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cool, we're on to the next thing, no, God's.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's patient, his process, is in motion.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we gotta trust him in his pace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rappin' this up today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rappin' this up, when we put all this together, Exodus 21, 22, 23, I know we didn't go over 21 today, but we did last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we see kind of what holiness should look like in everyday life.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does God expect of the Israelites and what does he expect of us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's not about working to earn our salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about where saved, now how should we live.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think in this, he shows us what we should be restoring what's broken, taking ownership for our actions, our words,

[SPEAKER_00]: Walking in integrity, resting in God's rhythm of what he's set, trusting God, even when it's gonna take some time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what it means to live as God's people, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And as the Israelites heard these things, and this is a little spoiler for next week,

[SPEAKER_00]: But they respond and they say, all that the Lord has said, we will do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hear all of it to that cool, we're on board.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they probably just heard the part we're like, he's gonna go after our enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cool, I like that, I'm down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever that means, I'm cool with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we know too is that they didn't keep all of his laws, but here's the truth of it as neither do we.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, if we're honest with ourselves, I think we'll see that in our own lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: We fail often.

[SPEAKER_00]: We break things that we can't fix.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's relationships, maybe it's trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: We neglect the vulnerable in our culture world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Society, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We lack integrity at times.

[SPEAKER_00]: We refuse to rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: We fight God's pace, but so in your part like, well, what hope is there, Nick?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the hope is Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know that right, like, of course.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hope is Jesus, because Jesus is our holiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is our righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage you in this because sometimes the world will beat you up and Satan will beat you up and you will beat yourself up because you're like, I'm not good enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I am is a failure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never be able to do it and maybe you've ever, I don't want to show a hands, but I'm sure some of you have thought this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It goes through my mind sometimes and I'm like, what am I even doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't do what I feel like you've called me to do and it's

[SPEAKER_00]: Hope is for us, is Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture says that we become His righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He became sin for you and I.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like He took on our sin, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, give me your sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you have this huge debt that you can't pay money, right, we'll just use that example.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He's like, give it to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna put it on my tab.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going from one to one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I care for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Give me your stain.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll take it on.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll put it on my tap.

[SPEAKER_00]: He pays our debt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something we couldn't pay so that we could become his righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that we could be made holy in the side of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus perfectly lived out the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus 21, 22, 23, and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we can see and we'll turn to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: A time of communion is that Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly, and he took our sin upon the cross, and he establishes what's now the new covenant and his blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that himself, the new covenant in my blood, this covenant of grace, when that will see a bit picture next week in Exodus 24.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing is, Jesus offers us a new life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He offers us holiness, the authors, us righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not through our works that were saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's through His grace and His mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not about us trying to earn His favor.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just us living from His favor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're saved, I want to live differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're saved, I hope that you'd want to live differently, because you realize what Jesus has done, I hope you'd want to live differently to show people that around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to fail at times.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just a matter of reality, a truth of Scripture, that we all fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus, He forgives us.

[SPEAKER_00]: His grace is sufficient.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that we can get back up and we can keep pursuing him because keep shining the light to those around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's something to that even.

[SPEAKER_00]: That you might feel discouraged because you feel like you fail too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think to the world who would see a Christian who gets knocked down time and time again, but gets back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: A Christian who admits to the wrong is I'm sorry for what I said.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry for how I treated you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry for neglecting this situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: You start to take ownership.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's even something more powerful in which God will use that testimony in people's lives because they'll see you actually living out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only the holiness aspect, but you're living out the where you forgive me, I've sinned against you aspect and there's some powerful in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, Father, we thank you for your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went through a lot today, and I just pray God that you've given each and every one of us something to think about, something to take home, something that you've spoken to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe an area in which we need to repent of that we could do better to take more serious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's something encouraging to us that we could take to heart and find encouragement from that we could face the

[SPEAKER_00]: What's ahead this week, but God, wherever we're at, whatever's going on, I just pray, or that you'd create in us a heart that desires to be holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or a heart that is after yours, or that pray that you'd give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God, I pray that as we go home today, as we consider these things, God, that you would search our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: or that you would draw us in, that we would draw close to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that you do a great work, and Lord, that we desire to be people that are holding us every day, wherever we go, knowing that we are in light in this dark world, and that the people around us need to see your love, to see your compassion, to see your truth, and we just pray that you'd use us so that other people could know you as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Father, as we turn to communion, we thank you for what you've done that's you've sent your son to die for the sins of the world and that anyone who would believe, anyone who would receive could be saved when I pray that as we go to communion that we'd be, we'd come before you or with a reverent heart that we'd still are hard in mind and consider what you've done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: to purchase our sin, to free us, to give us a new life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That you send your son to die on the cross, is buried in the grave, and that we'd also be encouraged is that he rose again on the third day, as he said.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we know that there's hope, we know that you are the hope, the way the truth in the life and I pray as we get into communion, you just meet us in a special way.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.